Sunday, August 9, 2009

My husband had dinner recently with a very dear friend of his, a Muslim. The topic of their conversation rather quickly became living the spiritual life. Demetrios was extolling the virtue of humility, and the absolute necessity of it for the spiritual life, and his friend was brought up short. He said there was no such thing in Islam. Not meaning they never heard of humility, but it is not considered a component of the religious life. You don't need it to be devout.

This is the third big realization that has hit our friend between the eyes. The first was that Islam does not require love; the second was that it does not have forgiveness. As another Muslim friend of my husband's said, indicating that forgiveness was going just too, too far, "If someone does me wrong, that is going to be his problem."

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comments:

Okay... you got me wondering: can we ask... is this fellow, one assumes, a good and knowledgeable muslim... or like so many of us at least at some point in life: a fellow who is neither practicing nor well informed on his own tradition's (the Islamic) spiritual life?